Judah Cohen
Fellowship Description
During my fellowship year, I hope to set up an independent website that complements my forthcoming book Jews and Music in 19th Century America. In addition to high quality scans of synagogue music publications from the era—many for the first time—the site will include detailed, cross-referenced analyses of the pieces contained therein, a trove of supporting documents from contemporary newspapers and synagogue archives, interactive maps chronicling the travels of major Jewish music figures of the time, and original recordings of the music. When completed, the full site will allow visitors to experience in detail the sound of the 19th century American synagogue.
Judah M. Cohen, Associate Professor of Musicology, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, and the Lou and Sybil Mervis Professor of Jewish Culture, works at the meeting point of musicology, anthropology, history, global health, and Jewish studies. He has written The Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor: Musical Authority, Cultural Investment (2009); Sounding Jewish Tradition: The Music of Central Synagogue (2011); and, with Gregory Barz, he co-edited The Culture of AIDS in Africa (2011). He has also published extensively on Caribbean Jewish history, including the book Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (2004). Judah is currently completing a book-length project on nineteenth-century American synagogue music and making progress on a study of Holocaust-era narratives in musical theater.